Tuesday, March 24, 2015

OpenStreetMap to SVG

This morning I created a little visualization of the cartographic centers of a number of global cities. In truth my City Centers visualization is of only marginal interest. What is really interesting is how it was made.

Street Patterns is an ingenious tool for creating SVG images from OpenStreetMap data. In truth Street Patterns is actually a very detailed tutorial about how you can use Overpass and Turf to develop your own SVG map graphics. However the tutorial includes a number of map wizards which automate each stage of the process.

So, if you are happy with the circular SVG map template which the wizards produce, you can create your own SVG maps in a matter of minutes. If you don't want a circular map then you can just use the tutorial to create your own SVG maps from OpenStreetMap data.